The Last Straw
by Jenwryn
Summary: MWPP. Marauder Era fic... Sirius has come to the conclusion that Severus Snape is practising Legilimency on Lily Evans, and naturally the four lads get it in their heads that he's some kind of spy... Ah, conspiracy theories, what fun! R&R.
1. Conspiracy Theories

Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. Original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. Not beta read; don't jinx, however corrective spells are more than welcome to be cast in my direction…

* * *

**The Last Straw

* * *

**

_'I want to trip inside your head_

_Spend the day there _

_To hear the things you haven't said…' _

- U2, "Miracle Drug", 2004.

* * *

**(I)**

"I don't like it!" snapped Sirius in a loud voice and slammed his glass of firewhiskey down against the table with such force that a little of the clear liquid splattered Peter in the face, and his friends' drinks rattled.

Remus gave him a warning look and the barman, who happened to be walking past at that moment, seized a handful of Sirius's black hair, yanked the boy's head backwards not all that gently, and said with a bad-natured grin, "If that's my grog you're discussing, you can get your under-aged arses back out the door. I don't suppose you have any idea what kind of Hypogriff dung I'd be in if the authorities found you here."

James shot the barkeeper a bright smirk from the other side of the table. "_Find _us here? Never, Aberforth. We know which side our bread's buttered on, and all that trot. Besides, I've got my cloak." And he patted the inside pocket of his coat smugly.

Aberforth still had the hank of Sirius's hair in his hand, but he looked momentarily amused. "As if four big lads like yourselves are all going to fit under that thing anymore. You need your head read, son. And _you _need a haircut," he added to Sirius, who was clearly his favourite, and released him with a rough shove.

Sirius spluttered and glared up at him. "Well, that's rich, coming from you, Mr Hair-Down-To-His-Waist. You know I reckon Lennon must've met you when he wrote _Come Together_, you scraggly old goat." If Sirius felt Remus's kick beneath the table, he gave no sign of it. "Besides, I wasn't talking about the firewhiskey, it's just fine. I was talking about our little resident wannabe Death Eaters up at the school, if you really want to know."

"Heh," grunted Aberforth, "No, boys, not in the least bit desirous to know about that. I got better things to do and I'd hate to be hit by a wave of adult responsibility and feel the urge to discuss the matter with my brother, you know, that would be a dark day in my life. Happy drinking, lads." With a grimace he disappeared behind the bar and they could hear the noisy clinking of glasses.

Sirius snorted and looked back at his mates. "Yeah, and I could just imagine that."

Peter cleared his throat. "Oh yes… '_So, Aberforth, how did you hear this?' 'Well, they were drinking firewhiskey in my pub…'_" He brushed a mess of sandy hair from his eyes and grinned as his friends laughed appreciatively; Peter did a fine impersonation of just about anyone.

"Anyway," continued Sirius with a careless hand motion after the laughter had subsided, "It's not as if we need the Cloak anymore anyway. I'd like to see old Ab's face if I did a Padfoot when he wasn't looking and jumped up on the bar."

Remus shook his head at him over his butterbeer. "You really want to stop going on about that all the time, Sirius. Someone's going to end up hearing you who actually cares that it's illegal and then_ we'll _be the ones in Hypogriff dung. Not," he paused with a slight grin, "that the drink in your hand isn't technically illegal enough, but I don't think they chuck you in Azkaban for under-age drinking. Apart from that, it's all very well for you lot to become a travelling zoo at the snap of your fingers, but you know I can't. Or at least – I could – I suppose – without the potion – but I hardly…" he paused, "Anyway, the Cloak has its uses. Which," he added with a grim look in James's direction, "You probably don't want to advertise that loudly either."

"Oh, thanks for that little speech, _Dad_," drawled James and ran a hand through his hair. Peter chuckled, a bit too sycophantly.

Sirius rolled his eyes at him, "Look, honestly though, I don't like it. He's been creeping around her like she's got _'Accio Greaseball'_ tattooed on her forehead ever since we started school, but it's gotten worse since you strung him upside down, Prongs."

The boys grinned slightly at the memory then Remus, who never quite approved but never quite said anything either, shrugged. "They were friends even before they started school. He probably regrets calling her a Mudblood."

James stared at him. "She never told me that. About the friends thing, I mean."

Remus chuckled. "Well, that's the shock of the day, given that she barely manages to stand in the same room as you, James."

James poked his tongue out then took a swill of his drink and said, "Fine. _You _never told me that, either."

The werewolf shrugged, the sleeves of his frequently patched jumper wobbling slightly; it was several sizes too lage for him. "You never asked. But that's what she told me once, that they come from the same town and it was Snape who told her that she's a witch, even before she got her letter." His brow creased. "He's somehow involved in the whole business about her sister too, but I haven't quite worked out how yet."

James scowled. "You spend way too much time with Lily Evans, Moony."

Remus smiled serenely. "Jealous?"

Sirius roared with laughter and slapped Remus on the back. "You want to watch him, Prongs, we've made a real wizard out of him and now he's likely to get the witch right out from under your nose."

James still looked sour, but his smile across the table at Remus was genuine enough. It was quite clear that he _was _jealous of Remus's close friendship, but it was also quite clear that he didn't _really _believe she could possibly find his scruffy friend more attractive than him. The concept of a meeting of minds was not something taken all that seriously by James Potter. He worked on the principle that, in the end, everything in life was like catching the Snitch – persevere long enough and it'll end up in your hand with its little golden wings beating brightly. So would Lily, in the end. In the meantime, Remus could have his fun; James was as generous as he was confident.

"Could any of you actually _focus _here?" demanded Sirius impatiently and tapped his glass against the table again. "It doesn't actually matter which one of us Lily likes, in the end she's still _our _girl, the Marauder's girl, isn't she? We're all agreed on that." He glanced around the table and the other three boys nodded earnestly. "Well, I think it's real this time. I've been watching him, Snivellus. I think he's using Legilimency on her. He's probably a spy."

All around the table, the Marauders sat up straighter and stared at him over their drinks.

"_What_?" demanded James in the end.


	2. Confrontations

**(II)**

"Snivellus's a Legilimens," explained James, "I'm sure of it. I know the symptoms. My cousin Bella, bless her twisted little heart, has played with it on me often enough in the past. I've always suspected that's at least part of the reason she's so favoured amongst You-Know-Who's pets."

"That and she's such an _obliging _lap-dog," snickered Peter in a voice dripping with sauciness.

Remus and Sirius glared at him.

"That," said Sirius slowly with a dark glint to his eyes, "is an insult to dogs that I find personally offensive."

Peter stammered out an apology but then grinned as Sirius burst into laughter at the expression on the smallest boy's face.

"Anyway… so, he's always making eye contact for a start."

"Well, so do we."

"Yeah, but we aren't Snivellus, and our eyes aren't bottomless black pits, are they?"

"True." James looked thoughtful and then turned towards Remus. "You know basic Legilimency, don't you Moony? What do you say?"

Remus scratched at a seam on his jeans and made a mental note to mend it the next time he was own, then said, "I know basic _Occlumency_, James. Dumbledore aught me that to stop people twigging about my furry little problem but – but because I can throw about a bit of Occlumency doesn't mean I can do the opposite."

"But you could learn."

"I – yeah – I guess – if I found out the basics and – and had someone to practise on."

Peter gave a watery eye-roll as they all, predictably, looked at him.

"But we could always just ask her."

"Eh?"

"We could always just ask her. Lily. She's smart, she might even have noticed herself, but just not have put two and two together like we have. I mean, she's more trusting, isn't she? She's not necessarily going to consider the fact that Snape might be spying on her."

James frowned slightly. "I still don't see why he _would_. I mean, why would his Death Eater mates be interested in our Lily?"

Peter shrugged. "Maybe to recruit her."

"I get the impression he's already tried that," said Remus dryly.

The eldest son of Walpurga Black downed the rest of his whiskey in one gulp, then jumped to his feet. He dug around in his pocket for a moment, then dumped a pile of coins on the bar announcing rather grandly, "Keep the change, Aberforth, you can go have a haircut with it," (to which the old man, out of sight, snorted loudly), then turned to his fellow Marauders and said, "Well, come on. Off to the library it is then. Guaranteed our favourite Gryffindor will be there and we can have a go at asking her if she's noticed anything odd, and either way we can always look up some books on it if worst comes to worst."

"You mean, I can look up books while you lot sit around making Charmed paper-planes," muttered

Remus with a wry grin.

And with their hearts warmed by the both their drinks and the thought of Lily's company, the boys left the pub surreptitiously and a short time later were moving through one of the secret passageways back to Hogwarts…

* * *

Lily Evans was indeed in the library and she groaned slightly at the sight of Potter's gang trooping loudly through the door. So did the Librarian, who swooped down on them like a silent, furious guardian before they'd barely even crossed the threshold.

"Mr Potter, Mr Black, Mr Pettigrew and Mr Lupin. My, my, I'm sure we're all honoured by your presence. What are you up to?"

Sirius opened his mouth with a glint in his eyes, but James elbowed him and responded to the Librarian's question with his best smile. "Homework, Madam Pince. Honest." And he pulled a roll of parchment from an inside pocket and unfurled it to show the great list of papers he was supposed to write. The fact that the vast majority of those papers had been due before their OWLS didn't escape the Librarian's notice – after all, it was she who helped the more diligent students, such as Miss Evans or Miss McDonald, to find the texts that they would need, and so she always had a fair idea of where all the classes were up to. But she sighed slightly and nodded. "Fine. But I want to see genuine study. And no food, drink, or messing around with wands, do you hear? I see one jot of mischief and I'll have you out of here faster than you can say _Justus Pilliwinkle_."

She bestowed a sweet smile on Remus and bustled off.

"A celebrated Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," explained Lily Evans with a sigh. She was seated at a desk close to the door and had seen the boys' baffled looks about who Justus Pilliwinkle was supposed to be. "Very popular, he was. Died just over thirty years ago. I dare say Madam Pince thought of him in context with you twits because he put a lot of arrogant law-breakers in their places." She glared at James and Sirius significantly, and then smiled tiredly at Lupin. "Hi, Remus. You'd better sit down, you know, or Pince'll kick you out."

They sat quickly at Lily's table, not a single one of them needing to be asked twice, and the girl rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean you had to sit _here_. I'm actually working, if you know what that term means."

Severus Snape, dark hair hanging down over the parchment he was reading, snorted at the next table.

Lily shot him a look just as sour as the one she'd directed at the Marauders. She still hadn't forgiven him for calling her a Mudblood, and come to think of it, she was still undecided about whether she ever would.

"If you imbeciles are planning on starting another one of your preposterous verbal piddling contests, could you kindly take it somewhere else?"

James gave Remus a raised-eyebrow-look which meant _well, go on, she'll talk to you_, and the werewolf sighed, leant across the table and said gingerly, in a very quiet voice, "Actually, Lil, we wanted to talk to you about something."

She paused, then slapped a bookmark in at her page and closed the book with an irritated snap. "Fine. What? And don't," she added with a dark glance at James, "think that just because you've bullied Remus into asking doesn't mean I don't know you're behind it."

"Actually, I take full credit," smirked Sirius and the girl rolled her eyes again.

"That's even worse," she muttered, but a small smile had begun to creep in at her lips as she watched Remus's impatient glare at his friends.

"It's about Legilimency, Lil," he said softly. "What do you know about that?"

Severus Snape stiffened at the next table. Lily didn't notice; the Marauders did.

"What," she asked, "brawny and brawnier here have finally realised that they have NEWTS to sit in a couple of years and this is their alternative to study?" Clearly, she wouldn't put anything past them.

Remus grinned slightly, and shook his head. "More – more about how you'd know when it was being practised on you."

Lily looked suddenly concerned, leaning in towards him. "But you're good at Occlumency, Moony," she whispered, falling without noticing into the familiar nickname tossed around the Gryffindor Common Room, "Surely you―?"

The young werewolf glanced sideways at his friends, who nodded at him.

"Not me, Lil. _You_."


	3. Clutching Straws

**(III)**

"Me?" Lily sat back, clearly startled.

"Sssh," hissed James, but that was a tactical error because she glared at him, eyes narrowed and flashing dangerously. "Don't tell me what to do, James Potter. You might think you're marvellous, swanning around all over the place with your Quidditch and your admirers, but that doesn't mean everyone else does. If we're all lucky you might grow some maturity before we leave Hogwarts and a person will be given a chance to work out if there's actually some basis to all this fame."

He opened his mouth to speak, then blinked behind his glasses and for once remained silent.

Surprised, Lily watched him suspiciously for a second or two, then turned back to Remus. "Who would be practising Legilimency on _me_, Moon― oh." Her face flushed darkly. "OH." And she rose to her feet very, very slowly and turned and looked at the next table where Severus sat, clearly listening to their conversation. "Severus," she said in a terrifying voice that made all the Marauders shiver, and Snape stared up at her, oddly pale and crimson at the same time, which gave him a weird blotched aspect.

"Y—yes, Lily?"

"You wouldn't use Legilimency on me, would you?"

Snape hesitated, unable, as always, to lie flatly to her face the way he could to anyone else's, and that familiar hesitation was his undoing.

Lily let out a small screech of fury that made the librarian spin towards them and drop a pile of books.

"Miss Evans!" she exclaimed.

Lily didn't hear her. She was turning a slightly strange colour and looked, to the Marauders, more than a little demented. "You – you – you – how DARE you?!" she shouted, her face twisted until she looked uncannily like her sister in a temper.

Severus seemed to find a reserve of courage somewhere because he jumped to his feet as well, his hands clenched into white knuckled fists at his sides. "You won't talk to me! I make one stupid mistake and that's it!"

"ONE MISTAKE?" she bellowed.

Madam Pince had appeared on scene by now, white faced in shock at the spectacle the Gryffindor Prefect was making of herself. Remus, her fellow Prefect and who was sensing danger, jumped u and tried to grab Lily's arm and pull her away, but she shook him off.

"Gentleman and Miss Evans, you can all leave this instant!" declared the horrified librarian.

Neither Gryffindor girl nor Slytherin boy appeared to hear her, and either way Severus was too busy talking over the top of her. "Yes," he was shouting, "One stupid mistake! One! Whatever happened to that legendary big-hearted Gryffindor capacity for forgiveness? And I was worried about you, Lily, and if you won't talk to me what else can I do?"

"CREEP AROUND INSIDE MY HEAD?!" she shrieked.

There was a loud and sudden bang from Madam Pince's wand and both Lily and Severus turned and stared at her angrily.

"Fifty points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin!" managed the librarian, ashen faced with offence, "I am _heartily _ashamed of the both of you! Now get out, get out, the whole lot of you! And I'll be talking to your Heads of House, I will!"

Severus snatched up his belongings so fast that he spilt his ink, and Lily wasn't much better. They stormed out and down a corridor and the Marauders followed them quickly in a kind of stumped awe.

"I'm guessing he's not spying, then," snickered Sirius and his mates grinned.

Lily and Severus were still fighting, but now in loud hissing voices, like angry snakes.

"You had no right to be in my head."

"I care—"

"Care? You have a funny way of showing it, Severus Snape! If you cared you'd quit hanging around with Avery and Mulciber and – but you know, I think we've already had this discussion!"

("If he cared, he'd wash his hair," whispered Peter to the others as they watched.)

"But I do care! I lo—"

She turned on him, wand in her hand and pointed at him furiously. "Don't you say that word, Severus Snape, don't you DARE say it! You don't even know the meaning of it. All you are is jealous, jealous because you think that James Potter or Remus Lupin or Sirius Black," (each boy straightened with pleasure as she said their names; Peter looked a little disappointed by not all that surprised), "might have a chance with me! And do you know what? They might be stupid at times, Severus, they might break rules, but at least they don't dabble with evil! I know what you and your friends get up to. You're just so eaten up inside that you can't even think straight anymore. So don't you _dare _use that word in my presence." She continued to glare at him, then gave a quick glance in the Marauders' direction, snapping, "And _you _can all stop looking so damn stoked." Then with a spin and a fierce shoving of her wand into her robes, she flounced off away from all of them.

Snape stared after her. "But I _do _know what it means…" he whispered in a tiny voice.

The Marauders trooped past him with grins plastered all over their faces. "I reckon you just got told, Snivellus," snickered James and then boasted loudly to his friends, "And did you notice she listed me first?"

"Alphabetical!" protested Sirius, "It was purely alphabetical – J, R, S…"

Bickering merrily amongst themselves, they vanished around the corner.

Severus Snape was left standing in the corridor, silent and alone, and the pain in his eyes buried only by the unadulterated hate with which he watched the last spot he'd seen the Marauders. One day, he'd get his revenge on them.

One day.


End file.
